May 14, 2006

Then and Now

From a historic site, above is a northeast aerial view looking from Silver Lake toward Atwater Village (at the top). This is February 1929, the month of the first Academy Awards. Look how densely developed AV already was, compared to the sparseness of Silver Lake. Many of those AV homes still stand.

That's Hyperion and Griffith Park Avenues along the left, crossing each other toward the top (just like a few other "parallel" Los Angeles streets). The LA River runs left to right, just below Atwater Village.

Below, a similar, yet less elegant, aerial vision from Google Earth today. Look at Silver Lake's development in the last 77 years. Atwater Village, if it weren't so fuzzy in this image, would look about the same.